


Whiskey Kiss

by ProwlingThunder



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Drift Compatibility, Gen, Jaeger Pilots, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), M/M, Pre-Vault, Soldier Boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-06 03:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12808245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: On paper, he and Quinn don't mesh up. The dynamic isn't right, according to science and psyche profiles.





	Whiskey Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Instead of Power Armor, America comes up with something different to combat their enemies. Because America has a thing for giant robots.

"You can't say civilization don't advance... in every war they kill you in a new way."  
\--Will Rogers

 

(It should be easy to find  _ someone, _ Silas thinks, peering up at the new suit, a marvel of mechanical wonder that towers above the concrete tiling. It should be and he knows it isn't. On paper his most compatible person is  _ Carslile,  _ and after school-- well, Carslile is the last person he wants in his head.

Never-you-mind that he's smart enough to look at the other soldiers who've been chosen to pilot America's newest defenses, the answer to China's newest ally in Russia. He has seen how they interact and interplay off each other. He can see the way they move together, every step a beat in time, and the way they-- they  _ drift, _ and he's seen how Simón and Ermete react when someone steps between them, or gets too close, how they respond to questions. They're still themselves but they're... not, either.

He doesn't want that with Carslile. Maybe if he'd been different.)

 

(When  _ just Quinn _ gets off the bus at boot camp, it... clicks. Silas can't place it; it's only a feeling, something he gets when Quinn squares his jaw against Carslile and his ilk and--

It's just a feeling, honestly. But he knows what his grandfather Matvey says about  _ feelings, _ and maybe Silas doesn't put much stock in predictive futures, but he has a good feeling he'll be seeing a lot of Quinn, eventually.

They're stationed at the same training base, so it's not like they've got very much room to be separated.)

 

(On paper, he and Quinn don't mesh up. The dynamic isn't right, according to science and psyche profiles. Silas isn't privy to all the science and voodoo doctors pull, it's a little out of his league. He bristles at them when they refuse to even try, but-- he's a soldier. He has his orders.

He also has his father. General King's eyebrows are quirked at an angle that Silas knows is  _ amusement, _ his face pinched just so to show worry. But he listens when Silas asks him, explains-- and listens, still, when he says,  _ "Father, please. Let me try." _

Of course, then someone has to explain to Quinn what he's doing in the training hall, surrounded by officers and frowning scientists who are still  _ so certain _ it's not going to work.

On paper, it doesn't. But on paper he and Carslile work, and in person Carslile and he dance but it's violent and not right, Carslile looking to subjugate and Silas intent to  _ never _ be lesser than him.

In person, on the other hand, Silas offers Quinn a reassuring smile and steps out onto the mat, and they-- they  _ move, _ breathing in time, every step like they've practiced it a thousand times. Someone in the crowd records it for observational purposes later and when Silas watches it, eventually, he sees in himself and Quinn maybe the beginnings of what he sees in Ermete and Simón, the drift.

Of course, none of that matters until they get into the suit, it can still all fall apart, but--

"Did you see the look on his  _ face?" _ he's asked, when they later run into Carslile in the mess and it's him and Quinn, arm to arm, and the affection in his chest has nothing to do with anything but a part of him is so proud, savagely proud, and he  _ feels _ it will work.)

 

("What are you calling it?" the lead mechanic asks, after the first successful test in the control pod, while Silas is still trying to shake out the dissonance between a short childhood glossed over and the rather intense craving for sugar cookies. A shared history-- and no one had told him about that, had warned him, that they'd see one another's lives. He doesn't have to be inside Quinn's head right now to know how very much Quinn would have refused it if he'd known that Silas would  _ see. _

But he sees him. He's seen all of him, he knows him, and Silas is going to make sure it doesn't have to be in the middle of a warzone and in one another's flesh that Quinn understands how very much it  _ does not matter. _

Quinn's still looking rather like a deer in headlights when Silas finds his tongue.  _ "Whiskey Kiss." _ )


End file.
